EXCLUSIVE – Dr Morrow’s Genocide Initiative against Wahhabism is gaining traction in the US – Congressman is pushing for political recognition

SHAFAQNA – Dr John Morrow and his team’s efforts have dramatically changed America’s political landscape now that a Congressman has petitioned the House of Congress, hoping to see recognize ISIS’ crimes as acts of genocide against Islam, Christianity and all religious minorities.

Earlier this September US Congressman, Jeff Fortenberry, a Republican introduced Resolution 75 to Congress on September 9, 2015 ahead of the Pope’s scheduled visit to the Washington.

• the atrocities committed against Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities targeted specifically for religious reasons are crimes against humanity and genocide;

•each of the Contracting Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and other international agreements forbidding war crimes and crimes against humanity, particularly the governments of countries and their nationals who are in any way supporting these crimes, are reminded of their legal obligations under the Convention and these international agreements;

•the United Nations (U.N.) and the Secretary-General are called upon to assert leadership by calling the atrocities war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide;

•the member states of the U.N., with an appeal to the Arab States that wish to uphold religious freedom and justice, should collaborate on measures to prevent further war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, and collaborate on the establishment of tribunals to punish those responsible for the ongoing crimes;

•the governments of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Lebanese Republic, and other countries are commended for having undertaken to shelter and protect those fleeing extremist violence; and

•those who force the migration of religious communities from their ancestral homelands, including specifically the Nineveh Plain and Mount Sinjar, should be prosecuted in accordance with the laws of the place where their crimes were committed and under applicable international criminal statutes and conventions.

Dr Morrow’s determination to expose Wahhabi-inspired radicalism has been welcomed by rights groups across the globe. Gregory Stanton of Genocide Watch recently said he was delighted of the progress the Genocide Initiative made on the ground in terms of raising awareness against ISIS.

Genocide Watch has been working with Chaldean Christians on precisely the same issue as the Genocide Initiative (headed by Dr Morrow) : having the actions of ISIS officially declared “genocide”.

Following is that Gregory Stanton from Genocide Watch, had to say on ISIS’ crimes:

“Members of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, representing the world’s largest organization of experts on genocide, have called upon the United States Congress to declare that the crimes committed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) also known as Daesh, constitute genocide in violation of the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Genocide is the intentional destruction, in whole or in part, of a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such. ISIS is committing genocide against religious groups that do not conform to ISIS’s totalitarian definition of ‘true Islam.’ ISIS’s mass murders of Chaldean, Assyrian, Melkite Greek, and Coptic Christians, Yazidis, Shia Muslims, Sunni Kurds and other religious groups meet even the strictest definition of genocide. ISIS’s policy of mass rape is also genocidal. The gendered pattern of persecution pursued by ISIS against groups it considers to be infidels conforms to historical patterns of genocide, particularly the mass killing of men and teenage boys accompanied by the rape and enslavement of women and teenage girls and the kidnapping of children. ISIS government in areas it has occupied includes beheadings of captives and people considered apostates, destruction of religious centers such as churches and monasteries, and pillage of ancient cultural sites that do not conform to the regime’s religious orthodoxy—acts typical of genocidal regimes. ISIS rules by totalitarian terror. ISIS leaders, many of them from Saddam Hussein’s sadistic regime, have read Stalin’s writings on how to use terror to rule populations through fear. That is why ISIS beheads its captives, and then posts videos of the beheadings on the internet. ISIS must be defeated militarily to destroy the illusion of invincibility its terrorism has created. It is incredible that American airstrikes have left Raqqa and dozens of ISIS training camps standing. Are American and NATO Air Forces incompetent? ISIS must also be defeated ideologically. This is a spiritual war, very similar to the Cold War against Communism. Muslim nations must reclaim Islam from the satanic preaching of ISIS. The imaginary ISIS caliphate is like the Khmer Rouge attempt to recreate the imaginary 11th century Angkor Empire. What difference would it make to call the crimes of ISIS “genocide?” Studies by genocide scholars have shown that calling genocide by its proper name, rather than using euphemisms like “ethnic cleansing” or weaker terms like “crimes against humanity,” increases the probability of forceful action to end the crimes by over four times. The most relevant case was Kosovo, where US War Crimes Ambassador Scheffer’s determination that the crimes were genocidal massacres led nearly directly to the bombing of Belgrade and a rapid end of the conflict. One way to undermine the ideological attraction of ISIS is indictment of ISIS leaders by the International Criminal Court (ICC.) Because Syria and Iraq are not state-parties to the ICC, only the UN Security Council can refer ISIS to the ICC. Russia and China might not block such referral since they have radical Muslims of their own to deal with. The UN Security Council should refer ISIS to the ICC for investigation and prosecution. The Arab League, Turkey, NATO, and national police forces should act swiftly and firmly to arrest ISIS leaders. ISIS must be stopped and brought to justice.”
By Catherine Shakdam for Shafaqna